When Yvonne first mentioned she was going to start an ECUS Environmental Management blog, I thought it was a great idea, although I knew full well it was only a matter of time before she coerced gently persuaded me into writing something. As I’m one of those sad people who finds environmental legislation really interesting, what could be better I thought, than to write about the forthcoming Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations?!
Exemptions are required for waste management activities that have a fairly low environmental impact but still require a certain element of control from the regulator. The activities covered range from simply storing waste on site, to crushing it, to more complex activities such as spreading agricultural waste on land. What most businesses probably don’t realise is that they automatically have a waste exemption under Schedule 3, Part 2 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007. Exemptions in this Part are ‘unregisterable’ and pretty much every business producing waste will automatically fall under the paragraph 52 “temporary storage of waste on the site where it is produced” exemption.
The new Regulations are due to come into force on April so I spent part of my train journey down to Somerset last week getting clued up on them, and was actually pleasantly surprised. The Environment Agency held a series of consultation workshops last year and I went along to one in Birmingham. The delegates were a mixed bag; consultants, environmental managers and operators. The poor Agency representative got a bit of a grilling as the initial consultations suggested a £50 charge per exemption, to be renewed every year. Operators who used mobile crushers on construction sites were also concerned, as the proposed new limits would mean that many of them would require a standard permit for mobile plant rather than an exemption.
So after numerous consultations, it’s interesting to see the actual outcome, which I will summarise in a few succinct bullet points:
- The two tier system of complex and simple exemptions has been removed – activities will either require an exemption or a standard environmental permit;
- Only exemptions relating to refurbishment of WEEE are chargeable, contrary to the initial proposals;
- Exemptions will need to be renewed every three years and will appear on the Agency’s Public Registers;
- The relevant EWC codes are provided for all waste streams covered;
- Exemptions are split into categories:
- U (use of waste) 1-16
- T (treatment of waste) 1-33
- D (disposal of waste) 1-8
- S (storage of waste) 1-3
It remains to be seen how successful the amendments are once the new Regulations are in force, but my personal view is that they’re a great improvement on the old exemptions. They’re much clearer and more specific as to the type of activity and waste stream. But the most surprising bit is hidden away in the Part 2 unregisterable exemptions. Whereas previously there were limits on the quantities of waste that could be stored, these no longer exist. The only criteria under the new Regulations is that waste cannot be stored for longer than 12 months and it must be stored in a secure place, and this applies to hazardous waste as well. So that means in theory it’s perfectly acceptable for a company to store over 23,000 litres liquid hazardous waste or waste oil without being regulated for it! Which leads us on to the inadequacy of the Oil Storage Regulations, but that’s another story for another day…
No comments:
Post a Comment